Or Hedge might come back...

Sam didn’t want to just sit where he was. Lirael might need his help. Nicholas might need his help. He had to find them. Together, they might survive long enough to do something about this Destroyer trapped in the silver hemispheres. Alone, they could only fail and fall.

Sam packed away Lirael’s bow and the dropped arrow. Then he balanced the two packs using a single strap on each shoulder, made sure Mogget would not fall out even though the cat deserved to, and started west, the stream burbling along beside him.

chapter eleven

hidden in the reeds

Lirael more than half expected to find a boat made of woven reeds, since the Clayr had Seen her and Nicholas in it on the Red Lake. Even so, she was very much relieved when she did stumble across the strange craft, because the water was now well above her thighs. If it had got any deeper, she would have had to turn back or risk Nick drowning, since she couldn’t carry him any other way than the fireman’s lift, which put his head about two feet lower than hers.

Carefully, she unloaded him into the centre of the canoe-like boat, quickly grabbing the sides as it tipped. The boat was about twice as long as she was tall, but very narrow apart from its midsection – so there would be only just enough room for both of them.

Nick was semiconscious, but he rallied as they sat quietly in the boat, and Lirael considered her options. The reeds leant over them, creating a secret bower, and small waterbirds called plaintively nearby, with the occasional splash as one dived after some fishy treat.

Lirael sat with her sword across her lap and a hand on the bell-bandoleer, listening. The marsh birds would be happily piping and fishing, then they would suddenly go silent and hide deeper in the reeds. Lirael knew it was because Gore Crows were flying low overhead. She could feel the cold spirit that inhabited them, single-mindedly following the orders of its necromancer master. Searching for her.

The boat was exactly as the Clayr had said it would be, but Lirael felt a strange new fear as she sat rocking in it. This was the limit of the Clayr’s vision. They had Seen her here with Nicholas, but no further, and they had not Seen what Nicholas was. Was their Sight limited because this was the end? Was Hedge about to appear through the reeds? Or would the Destroyer emerge from within the slight young man opposite her?

“What are you waiting for?” Nick asked suddenly, showing himself to be more recovered than she’d thought. Lirael jumped as he spoke, setting the boat rocking more violently. Nick’s voice was loud, strange in the quiet world of the reeds.

“Silence!” ordered Lirael in a stern whisper.

“Or what?” asked Nick with some bravado. But he spoke more softly and his eyes were on her sword.

A few seconds passed, then Lirael said, “We’re waiting for noon, when the sun is brightest and the Dead are weak. Then we’ll head along the lakeshore and, hopefully, make it to a meeting place where your friend Sameth will be.”

“The Dead,” said Nick with a superior smile. “Some local spirits to appease, I take it? And you mentioned Sam before.

What’s he got to do with this? Did you kidnap him too?”

“The Dead... are the Dead,” replied Lirael, frowning. Sam had mentioned that Nick didn’t understand, or even try to comprehend, the Old Kingdom, but this blindness to reality could not be natural. “You have them working in your pit. Hedge’s Dead Hands. And no, Sam is working with me to rescue you. You obviously don’t understand the danger.”

“Don’t tell me Sam has fallen back into all this superstition,” said Nick. “The Dead, as you call them, are simply poor unfortunates who suffer from something like leprosy. And far from rescuing me, you have taken me away from an important scientific experiment.”

“You saw me as an owl,” said Lirael, curious to find exactly how blinkered he was. “With the winged dog.”

“Hypnosis... or hallucinations,” replied Nick. “As you can see, I’m not well. Which is another reason I shouldn’t be in this... this compost heap of a craft.”

“Curious,” said Lirael thoughtfully. “It must be the thing inside you that has closed your mind. I wonder what purpose that serves.”

Nick didn’t reply, but he rolled his eyes eloquently enough, obviously dismissing whatever Lirael had to say.

“Hedge will rescue me, you know,” he said. “He’s a very resourceful chap, and he’s just as keen to stay on schedule as I am. So whatever mad belief has seized you, you should give it up and go home. In fact, I’m sure there would be some sort of reward if you returned me.”

“A reward?” Lirael laughed, but with bitterness. “A horrible death and eternal servitude? That’s the ‘reward’ for anyone living who goes near Hedge. But tell me – what is your ‘experiment’ all about?”

“Will you let me go if I tell you?” asked Nick. “Not that it’s terribly secret. After all, you won’t be publishing in Ancelstierran scientific journals, will you?”

Lirael didn’t answer either question. She just looked at him, waiting for him to talk. He met her gaze at first, then faltered and looked away. There was something unnerving about her eyes. A toughness he had never seen in the young women he knew from the debutante parties in Corvere. It was partly this that made him talk, and partly a desire to impress her with his knowledge and intelligence.

“The hemispheres are a previously unknown metal that I postulate has an almost infinite capacity to absorb electrical energy for later discharge,” he said, arching his fingers together. “They also create some sort of ionised field that attracts the thunderstorms, which in turn create lightning that is drawn down by the metal. Unfortunately, that ionised field also prevents working of the metal, as steel or iron tools cannot be brought close.

“It is my intention to connect the hemispheres to a Lightning Farm, which a trusted associate of mine is building in Ancelstierre even as we speak. The Lightning Farm will be composed of a thousand connected lightning rods that will draw down the full electrical force of an entire storm – rather than just a number of strikes – and feed it into the hemispheres. This power will... ah... repolarise... or demagnetise... the two hemispheres so they can be brought together as one. This is the ultimate goal. They must be brought together, you see. It is absolutely essential!”

He collapsed back with the last word, his breath coming in ragged gasps.

“How do you know?” asked Lirael. To her it sounded like the sort of waffle used by false seers and charlatan mages, as much to convince themselves as anything.

“I just know,” whispered Nick. “I am a scientist. When the hemispheres are in Ancelstierre, I will be able to prove my theories, with proper instruments and proper help.”

“Why do the hemispheres have to be brought together?” asked Lirael. That seemed to be the weakest point of his belief, and the most dangerous, for bringing the hemispheres together would make whatever was trapped inside them whole. It was only as she asked it that she realised there was a more important question.

“They have to be,” replied Nick, puzzlement showing clearly on his face. Obviously he couldn’t think clearly about it at all. “That should be obvious.”

“Yes, of course,” said Lirael, soothingly. “But I’m curious about how you will get the hemispheres to Ancelstierre. And where exactly is your Lightning Farm? It must be hard to set something like that up. I mean, it would take an awful lot of space.”

“Oh, it’s not as difficult as you might think,” said Nick. He seemed relieved to be moving away from the subject of bringing the hemispheres together. “We’ll take the metal down to the sea in barges and then follow the coast south. Apparently the waters are too disturbed and the weather too foggy as a rule to go all the way by sea. We’ll take them ashore just north of the Wall, drag them over that, and then it’s only a matter of ten or twelve miles to Forwin Mill, where my Lightning Farm is being built. It should be just about completed by the time we arrive, all being well.”